Erik Bertil Vallien (b. 1938) Swedish, Signed Kosta Boda Art Glass Vase. Bright neon yellow horizontal stripes all the way up and down. Signature on base, ID number 48704. 

Condition: Flea bite on top rim. 

Size: 3 3/4 x 3 x 8 1/4 in. 

#3522 . 

Erik Bertil Vallien (known primarily by his middle name) was born Erik Wallin on January 17th, 1938 in Sollentuna, north of Stockholm, Sweden. His father was the painter and preacher Nils Wallin (1911-1987), and his six other siblings all showed some aptitude for the arts at one time or another. In his early teens Bertil worked as a decorator at PUB department store and as an apprentice painter at his father’s studio, and was accepted into the art school Konstfack in 1956 with a focus on oil painting. After two years he decided to switch to studying ceramics, graduating in 1961. He moved to California to continue his studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, after receiving a scholarship from the Kungafonden. He returned to Sweden in 1963 and immediately went to work for Boda Glassworks. That same year he married fellow artist Ulrica Hydman Vallien, taking her last name to differentiate himself from his family’s legacy. He was one of the primary glass artists and designers for Kosta Boda’s 100 year anniversary, still working there to this day. After Ulrica’s death in 2018 he stopped traveling back and forth between Sweden and the United States, where he had been having exhibitions of his work in Los Angeles and New York since the early 1960s. He also received an honorary doctorate from Växjö University, which holds an extensive collection of his many glass designs.

Flea bite on top rim.